Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge

Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge

“Forest Food Fight! Gender, Indigenous Knowledge and the Struggle for Resources at the Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in South Africa” will be presented at noon Feb. 25, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library on the University Park campus of Penn State.

“Transformation from Violence, Disease and Abuse to Self-Determination and Sovereignty in American Indian Communities” will be presented by Susan Chavez Cameron and Elayne Silversmith from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 23, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

“Maize Diversity and the Value of Chaos: Indigenous Imaginaries and Agricultural Innovation in Mexico's Central Highlands,” a seminar, will be presented from noon to 1 p.m. April 16 in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, and also online.

"Wild Onion Nurse: Women as Healers in Traditional and Contemporary Societies" will be held on Wednesday, April 9, from noon to 1 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The presentation, which is sponsored by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge, the Department of Women’s Studies, the College of Nursing and the University Libraries, is free and open to the public, and can also be viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/wildonionnurse. The event will be followed by a reception in Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, sponsored by the College of Nursing. All are invited and light refreshments will be available.

“Using Indigenous Knowledge-Based Narratives to Facilitate Ukrainian Immigrants’ Adaptation to Life in the United States” will be presented by Svitlana Iarmolenko at noon March 26 in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. This is the latest seminar in a series on indigenous knowledge that examines ways of knowing passed down orally from generation to generation.

"Wild Onion Nurse: Women as Healers in Traditional and Contemporary Societies," a presentation, will be held noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 19, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library on the University Park campus of Penn State. The presentation, which is sponsored by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge and the University Libraries, is free and open to the public.

An information night for the spring semester course “Exploring Indigenous Ways of Knowing in the North American Context” and Maymester field study (CED 497B and 497C) will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, in 113 Thomas Building on the University Park campus of Penn State. This program offers students an opportunity to learn about the history, culture and ways of life of the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth Ojibwe Nations in northern Minnesota through an unforgettable, immersive field study experience.

"Riding the Waves of Change: Indigenous Knowledge and Identity of Local Surfers on Nicaragua's Pacific Coast," a presentation by Lindsay Usher, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 20, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The event is free and open to the public, and can also be viewed live online at http://live.libraries.psu.edu by searching for the presentation date in the menu to bring up the direct link. (No log-in is required.)

Many people are unaware that indigenous groups continue to thrive in communities located along the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. Las Salinas, where indigeneity is defined by castes, birth and land rights, is an indigenous community partially sustaining itself through surf tourism. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in Las Salinas, this lecture will explore the relationship between indigenous identity and surfer identity, and it will examine how indigenous surfers use local knowledge to negotiate the surf space as they find themselves having to share it with more tourists each year.

"Indigenous Knowledge That Inspires: Lessons from Research and Praxis in Central Africa" will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 23, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The event is free and open to the public and can also be viewed live at http://live.libraries.psu.edu and search for the presentation date in the menu to bring up the direct link. (No login is required.)

"Waste or Resource? Indigenous Uses of Cow Dung and Urine in Rural India" will be presented by Nripendra Singh at noon Tuesday (Dec. 4), in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. Singh is a Fulbright-Nehru Environmental Leadership Program Fellow at Penn State and is currently working on waste management in the School of Hospitality Management. His one-hour seminar will describe the many indigenous uses of cow dung and urine as a resource in rural India.

As Singh notes, the respect and regard paid to cows in India is well known, but the importance to rural Indians of the dung and urine of this sacred animal is often ignored. "Cow dung is used as a cooking fuel, sanitizing cleanser, construction material, for insulating and waterproofing walls and floors in rural houses, as a cultural symbol in religious worship and the raw material for producing organic compost and generating electricity.

Kristal Jones, doctoral student in rural sociology, will present "Circles or Lines? Exploring Indigenous Geographies and Economies of Seed Systems in West Africa" on from noon to 1 p.m. on Nov. 14, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library on the University Park campus of Penn State. In this seminar, Jones will talk about her research on the indigenous seed systems of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Mariano Sanchez, visiting scholar in the Penn State Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education, will present "How to Live to be 100: Indigenous Knowledge About Aging Well from Centenarians in Spain" at noon Oct. 24, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. Sanchez, who is professor of sociology at the University of Granada, in Spain, will conduct this presentation as part of an ongoing series of seminars organized by the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge.

On Oct. 8, Penn State students will talk about their experiences living among Ojibwe communities in northern Minnesota. The one-hour presentation, titled "Student Perspectives on Anishinaabeg Ways of Knowing," will be held at noon in Foster Auditorium, first floor, Paterno Library on the University Park campus. Danna Jayne Seballos, assistant director of the World in Conversation Project, and Bruce Martin of the University of Michigan will present with the students.

Penn State Libraries will host an "Indigenous Knowledge Showcase" from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 5, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library at the University Park campus of Penn State. Eva Pell, undersecretary for science at the Smithsonian Institution and former Penn State senior vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School, will deliver the keynote address from 10 to 11 a.m. on "The Importance of Indigenous Knowledge to the Academy."

"The Ripple Effects of Assimilationist Educational Policies and Practices for American Indian Students: From the Boarding School Era to the Present," a presentation, will be held from noon to 1:15 p.m. on Nov. 30, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.